Amazon sees Kindle sales surge on Black Friday

Black Friday proved to be the best ever for the Kindle e-reader and tablet devices, while the Kindle Fire tablet remains Amazon's top-selling product.

Black Friday proved to be the best ever for the Kindle e-reader and tablet devices, while the Kindle Fire tablet remains Amazon's top-selling product, the company said today.

The group of Kindle devices last Friday sold four times the amount sold on Black Friday in 2010, Amazon said in a statement. Those devices include the $79 Kindle (£89 Kindle here in UK), $99 Kindle Touch, $149 Kindle Touch 3G and the $199 Kindle Fire, first introduced to the US in September.

Dave Limp, vice president for Amazon Kindle, said the quadruple increase came atop a strong Black Friday one year ago. He said many customers are buying multiple Kindles, that trend is expected to continue today with Cyber Monday sales.

Target's vice president of marketing Nik Nayar said the Kindle Fire was the best-selling tablet in its stores on Friday. A Best Buy official said the Kindle device sales were also hot, but didn't elaborate.

Amazon is apparently benefiting from overall improvements in Black Friday and online sales, including those made from mobile devices. Online sales in the holidays should be up by 15 per cent in the US, ComScore said last week.

A survey by Wakefield Research also found 70 per cent of mobile shoppers expect to make more purchases from smartphones and tablets this holiday season.